Season’s greetings: Holiday healthcare wishes from McDermott+
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December 18, 2025 – Happy holidays! We are coming to the end of 2025, and what a year in healthcare it was! With a new administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other federal agencies have been extremely busy eliminating, modifying, and issuing new regulations and payment models, and they are not done yet. CMS will likely sprint through the finish line of 2025 and keep going just as strong into the new year. This may be the last Regs & Eggs blog post of the year (the next two Thursdays are Christmas and New Year’s Day), but we’ll have plenty to chew on in 2026!
While a previous Regs & Eggs blog post previewed what regs we expect to see through the end of the year (and there could be surprises as well), I thought we could take a step back this week and think from a more holistic perspective about healthcare and healthcare policy in this country and what we wish could change. If, during the holiday season, there is magic in the air, what do we wish could come true? To that end, I asked my McDermott+ colleagues to share their healthcare wishes with you all.
Healthcare policy wishes
- Jeffrey Davis: I’ll go first. My wish focuses on something I’ve written about many times: Medicare physician payment reform. I hope that Congress fixes the broken Medicare physician payment system, which currently does not include an inflationary update (like other Medicare payment systems do) and includes flawed budget neutrality requirements that pit physicians against each other. Inadequate reimbursement under Medicare has rippling effects, including adding to un- and under-compensated care costs (especially among rural and safety net providers) and putting more pressure on payers, facilities, and other entities to cover the payment void. Having stable, accurate, and value-based payments for physicians and other clinicians won’t fix every healthcare issue, but without it, we could see significant access issues arise in the not-so-distant future. Overall, it’s an important step we could take to improve payment accuracy and stability within the Medicare program and beyond.
- Rachel Hollander: Rachel H., who works closely with me on physician payment issues, wishes for a physician payment system that truly reflects the skill, training, and judgment physicians bring to caring for patients every day. As medicine grows more complex, appropriately valuing that professional work, including the responsibility and clinical intensity it entails, is essential to sustaining the physician workforce and ensuring patients can continue to access the care they need.
- Julia Grabo: Julia’s wish is for the Trump administration to make food is medicine (FIM) services more accessible for Medicare beneficiaries in 2026. When used appropriately, these services improve health outcomes, optimize medical spending, and increase patient engagement and satisfaction. The calendar year 2026 Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule included a request for information (RFI) on reimbursement for medically tailored meals. I hope that the administration acts on the stakeholder feedback from the RFI by providing a coverage pathway for medically tailored meals and other FIM services, such as produce prescription, in Medicare Part B. I hope the administration also makes changes to increase access to FIM benefits in Medicare Advantage (MA), such as classifying these services as “primarily health related” and improving data collection and utilization.
- Lynn Nonnemaker: Lynn, our resident MA expert, wishes for a very orderly and on-schedule process for the MA and Part D program regulatory cycles, with no “surprise” early releases of the rate notices and no last-minute rulemaking. Here’s hoping 2026 proceeds with calm efficiency!
- Kristen O’Brien: Kristen wishes for rules to be released in a timely manner but not on any holidays or holiday weekends. She fears, however, that some regulations are still looming before the end of year.
- Rachel Stauffer: Rachel S. wishes for permanent change . . . in telehealth! In her words: “We all know the pandemic reimagined the use of telehealth in care delivery. Yet, we are still working on making the Medicare telehealth flexibilities permanent. The reality is that we will not go back to pre-pandemic limitations, but living on the short-term fixes isn’t easy for patients and providers (as we saw during the shutdown). I hope lawmakers and stakeholders can work together to get this over the finish line in 2026.”
- Erin Fuller: Erin’s wish is to reduce the administrative burden physicians face when using digital health tools so these innovations can be leveraged more effectively for patients with chronic conditions and those living in primary care deserts. She also hopes for greater investment in women’s health, recognizing that with strong support for innovation we can develop more effective tools to address long-standing gaps in care. As digital health innovation advances, we need policies that support continued innovation, uphold patient safety, maintain affordability, and ensure equitable access, without imposing additional burdens on healthcare professionals.
- Amy Kelbick: Amy’s wish relates to two Medicare drug-related changes that are going into effect on January 1, 2026: an out-of-pocket cap of $2,100 in Medicare Part D and negotiated prices for 10 Part D drugs. Amy hopes that with these changes, seniors will finally have some peace of mind knowing they can afford their medications and will not have to make choices like rationing their drugs or remortgaging their home to afford cancer treatment.
- Rodney Whitlock: Rodney hopes for “more opportunities to be in conversation with younger staffers who’ve never experienced what it’s like to be able to work across the aisle and get policies enacted on a bipartisan basis. Helping folks get out of the ‘us versus them’ box and learn how to engage positively is something I’ll be seeking whenever and wherever possible.”
Overarching healthcare wishes
- Anthony Livshen: Anthony’s wish is for everyone in the world – no matter where they live – to have access to the food, clean water, and medicine that they need to be healthy. In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green writes that millions of people will die this year from TB, the world’s leading infectious disease killer, because “the cure is where the disease is not, and the disease is where the cure is not.” My hope this season is that fewer people struggle or die from diseases we already know how to prevent and treat.
- Parashar Patel: Parashar has a short but sweet wish: that federal workers, including healthcare workers and those at the US Department of Health and Human Services, do not have to endure another government shutdown in 2026!
- Marla Kugel: Marla is a firm believer in public health and wishes that people will continue to have access to and take advantage of preventative health services, including mammograms, colonoscopies, annual check-ups, vaccinations, and anything else your healthcare provider recommends for you. Lean into peak self-care and get yourself checked out!
- Eric Zimmerman: Eric wishes for a world in which everyone is so thoroughly healthy that they don’t need healthcare. But if they do, that it is available and accessible to all.
- Kayla Holgash: Last, but definitely not least, Kayla shares some personal news and wishes: “Beginning in January 2026, I will be living in Lisbon, Portugal! Although I will be leaving M+ professionally, I am still very committed to improving the health and experiences of everyone in need of care. And I know that your policy and advocacy needs will be well-served by my brilliant and dedicated M+ colleagues. My wish is that those working to provide affordable, equitable healthcare will have extra doses of energy, compassion, and dedication. The work you do is appreciated and necessary!” We will miss you, Kayla!
These are our healthcare wishes from M+, but we also want to hear yours! Send them our way!
And with that, we wish you all very happy holidays! Until next time, this is Jeffrey (and everyone from M+) saying, enjoy reading regs with your eggs!
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